Expired Jiffy Cornbread Mix: to Eat or Not to Eat?

Cornbread is a common side dish to serve along with chili or soups. We also love to use it for cornbread stuffing. Making cornbread from scratch can be a pain sometimes, and it is so much easier to use a pre-measured mix.

Personally, I love Jiff Corn Muffin mixes not only for the ease but all its cheap price. With inflation so many costs have continued to soar, but I can regularly find Jiffy mixes for about 80 cents or less. Occasionally, I even see Jiffy corn muffin mixes on sale for about 50 cents and then I really grab a few boxes.

This means I have stumbled upon an expired box of Jiffy cornbread mix and wondered if it was safe to eat or would it even taste good. Let’s find out all we can about expired cornbread mix!

Does Jiffy corn bread expire?

Almost every food product has an expiration date listed on the packaging. The only exception is gum, because the FDA doesn’t consider this a food since you don’t swallow it! (For more information, check out “What happens if I eat expired Gum?)

Anyways, back to Jiffy corn bread, according to their website ever since 2004 all products have a “Best if Used By Date” printed on top of their packaging in white ink.

Jiffy also states that if mixes are used after their expiration date, depending on local weather and storage conditions the quality of the finished product may be affected.

How long can you use Jiffy corn muffin mix after expiration date?

Now that we know that the corn bread mix can have quality issues after expiration date, what exactly does that mean? Let’s take a look at the ingredients inside of Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix.

WHEAT FLOUR, DEGERMINATED YELLOW CORN MEAL, SUGAR, LARD (HYDROGENATED LARD, BHT AND CITRIC ACID PRESERVATIVES), CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF: BAKING SODA, TRICALCIUM PHOSPHATE, SODIUM ACID PYROPHOSPHATE, MONOCALCIUM PHOSPHATE, SALT, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMINE MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID, WHEAT STARCH.

All of these ingredients are considered shelf stable, so let’s see what exactly the shelf life is so we can determine what will happen with an expired corn muffin mix.

Ingredient	Shelf Life
Wheat Flour	3-6 months after expiration date if stored properly
Yellow Corn Meal	up to a 1 year after expiration date if stored properly
Sugar	indefinitely if stored properly
Lard	6 months after expiration date
Baking Soda	18 months

So here comes our problem areas in expired cornbread mix, they are the wheat flour, lard, and baking soda.

Wheat Flour

Wheat Flour typically can last 3-6 months after expiration, but it has to be stored in a cool dark place in an airtight container. The cornbread mixes do a good job of being stored in an airtight bag inside of a box, but wheat flour can still go bad.

Wheat flour contains all three parts of the grain: bran, germ, and endosperm. This means that wheat flour contains 3/4 of a teaspoon of naturally occurring oils in every 1 cup of flour.

Oils can go rancid over time, and this means if you use expired wheat flour your finished product can have an odd aftertaste or smell.

Lard

You may think that the use of lard is a very outdated practice, but it is still used in quite a few commercially made baking mixes. This gives the product a creamy taste and texture.

Typically, lard can be safely used 6 months after the expiration date as long as it is stored at room temperature. (Up to 1 year in the fridge or freezer!)

Lard is mostly made from rendered pig fat, and just like the oil in wheat flour that fat can go rancid. This can cause a bad smell like just like rancid vegetable oil.

So, after baking your cornbread you may notice a very off flavor and smell.

Baking Soda

Baking Soda in general has a shelf life of about 18 months. When used in corn bread mixes, it acts as the leavening agent. Basically, it makes the cornbread go from a thick batter to a raised final product.

Baking Soda that is old doesn’t work as effectively anymore and will result in a very dense cornbread. So, an old cornbread mix may not raise like it should when you bake it.

Normally you can test baking soda’s effectiveness by taking a small amount and mixing it with vinegar. If you see a reaction of bubbling than it is still working.

If you see no reaction, then it is best to toss it. Now you can do this same test with cornbread mixes as well. The only issue is that baking soda makes up less than 2% of the total volume of the mix, so you may not get a good reaction.

How can you tell if cornbread mix has gone bad?

The number one easy way to test if your cornbread mix has gone bad is to give it a little sniff. If you notice an odd smell that is similar to rancid oil, then odds are good that the wheat flour or lard has gone rancid.

If your cornbread mix smells fine, you can still use it but note that the baking soda may have lost its effectiveness so it may not rise and fluffy like normal.

Now what about those black specks that you sometimes see in cornbread? Is it mold or proof that the mix has gone bad?

Actually no! Those little black specks that you sometimes see in cornbread mixes is actually perfectly normal and not a sign of spoilage.

According to Jiffy’s website, it is actually a naturally occurring dark pieces of the skin of the corn that was used. This can vary by crop and by year. So sometimes you may notice these black specks and other years they may not be seen.

These same black specks are also common in hard shelled tacos, corn chips, and tortilla chips. There is nothing harmful about these black specks at all!

Overall, you will want to try to use your cornbread mix within 6 months of the expiration date due to the possibility of rancid wheat flour/lard and the baking soda losing effectiveness.

Thankfully if you throw all caution to the wind and use an expired cornbread mix after 6 months, the worst thing will be the taste and the cornbread may not rise.

It is extremely rare to get sick due to rancid oil, and odds are good if the taste is bad, you will not continue to eat it.

For more information on expired foods, check out “Can I eat expired Microwave Popcorn?” and “What happens if you drink expired Dr Pepper?“